First lady Jill Biden defends Joe Biden in new Vogue profile

First lady Jill Biden is fiercely defending her husband, President Joe Biden, days after a stumbling and potentially costly televised performance.

The president faced off Thursday against former President Donald Trump in a historic presidential debate that left many Democrats anxious about his bid for reelection. The first lady is on the cover of this month's Vogue magazine, published Monday.

“If people knew what Joe’s done ...” Jill Biden told Vogue. “If they knew all of that ?I mean, the bridge is being built in their city and they don’t know who did it. They don’t know who’s getting the lead out of their water. They don’t know who’s stopping the pipeline going through the parklands. They don’t know.”

“That’s why I’m trying to be out there,” she continued. “Why we’re all trying. To say, ‘This is what we’ve achieved, and this is how it affects your life.’”

Here's what to know about the Vogue interview:

With the Biden family, first lady encourages him to stay in race

Jill Biden and the Biden family gathered at Camp David over the weekend, following the debate. She said then they "will not let those 90 minutes define the four years he’s been president" and "will continue to fight," according to an editor's note in the Vogue piece.

The note added that she will remain the president's "closest confidant."

“People don’t mention her when they talk about Biden’s key advisers," New York Times White House correspondent Katie Rogers told Vogue, "but she’s his gut check."

Rogers continued, "And she really believes in her husband’s ability to get things done for the American people—whether they’re his supporters or not. That’s why she’s fighting so hard for him to get a second term."

Following his rocky debate performance, Democrats have privately and publicly mulled whether Biden should continue as their party's presumptive presidential nominee.

NBC News reported Saturday that the decision is "deeply personal and familial" for the Bidens and ultimately, he will take his cue from her.

“If she decides there should be a change of course, there will be a change of course," a source told NBC.

Stumping for the president with key electorates

The first lady has been an active adviser throughout Biden's time in office, Vogue reports.

“Really, in so many different areas,” she told the magazine, “I tell him what I’m seeing, what I’m hearing ? and he gets it. And this is where the magic happens.”

Jill Biden has been particularly hands on in the administration while leading the White House's initiative on women's health research.

And on the 2024 trail, Vogue reports she acts as the campaign's empathetic ear and a spokesperson to women voters, a voting bloc the president will need to secure a win this November.

“Look, I know that food prices are up,” Jill Biden told Vogue. “I go to the grocery store when I’m in Wilmington. And I raised three kids, and did the food shopping for how many years before we got to this job? It’s not like I don’t know.”

The first lady appeared in Minneapolis earlier this year to rally the state's Women for Biden chapter, appealing to charged issues including reproductive rights in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022.

“We are the first generation in half a century to give our daughters a country with fewer rights than we had,” she reportedly told the crowd at the time. “Book bans. Voting laws gutted. Court decisions that strip away our most basic freedoms. But circumstance is not destiny.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jill Biden defends president on 2024 campaign trail in Vogue